Marino Joins Race For Ulysses Town Supervisor
For many weeks, it has seemed that Trumansburg Village Board member Chris Thomas would be the nominee of the Ulysses Democrats for the position of Town Supervisor. Allen Carstensen announced his intention to compete against Thomas for the nomination, but it seemed that many of the politically-active Democrats in Ulysses would side with Thomas.
Then, Thomas began to talk about his ideas for the town, including many that make most Democrats here uncomfortable: Privatizing Trumansburg’s ambulance service, to require residents to pay if they don’t have insurance coverage, pushing through another project akin to Water District 5, and describing rural broadband service as something unnecessary for Ulysses residents.
Apparently, these policy positions caused such concern that some Ulysses Democrats began looking for another alternative to Thomas. Roxanne Marino, who has a great deal of experience on the Town Board already, has stepped forward, and intends to seek the nomination at the Democratic caucus.
Carstensen has obtained the endorsement of the Tompkins County Green Party, and having successfully submitted the required number of petition signatures, will be on the ballot regardless of who the Democratic nominee is.
The Ulysses Democratic caucus will be held this coming Monday evening at the Trumansburg Firehouse, open to all registered Democrats in the town. People wishing to vote must sign in between 7:00 and 7:15 PM.
So if you knew that Roxanne would be nominated, why did you continue with your own nomination? I’m just curious.
I thought it was interesting that despite your deep-seated concerns about Chris Thomas, Roxanne Marino basically trounced him, getting nearly 75% of the vote. (I’m not saying your concerns weren’t valid; I just thought that from your previous comments it would have been much closer.) What’s your analysis of that result?
And, are you now concerned that the progressive vote will be split between the Democratic and Green Party tickets?
Peter, I can’t answer for Allen, but I can answer that the Green Party ballot status was obtained the hard way, by walking house to house with petitions, rather than the show-up-and-have-a-vote method the Democrats were able to have. Those petitions were obtained during the time it seemed that Chris Thomas would be the Democratic nominee.
Also, that Green Party line is taking place in the context that the last time that the Democrats and Republicans actually offered voters any choice for the office of Supervisor was 16 years ago. Since then, the Democrats have just accepted the Republican candidate, and even endorsed him, over and over again.
So, in that context, I don’t think that the Democrats really have much cause to claim ownership of the progressive vote, or to get upset when another progressive party comes along and offers voters the chance to have more than one candidate to vote for.
The Republicans so far have not offered a candidate, so if it weren’t for the Tompkins County Green Party, Ulysses would have probably had yet another year of no choice for Supervisor.
I think that Roxanne Marino would make a pretty good Supervisor, from what I know of her work. However, there’s a bigger principle involved – the principle that when voters choose an executive leader for their community, there ought to be more than one name on the ballot.
Austic is actually a registered Democrat, who was repeatedly selected at the caucus by his own party members and repeatedly endorsed by the Republican Party.
Of course you’re right. That’s my mistake.